companies led many investors to book profits following a massive global rally in recent weeks.

APA worker of HSBC Holding PLC cleans the lion statue in front of the bank after a press conference in Hong Kong.

Most major markets suffered losses, tracking overnight selling that pulled Wall Street lower for the high heels first time in five days. Asian banks, among the best performers of late, led the declines. Oil and mining firms also took a hit on lower prices for crude and metals.

Resurgent fears about the banking sector were partly to blame aft high heels er influential analysts at Calyon Securities warned Americas bank losses could exceed Depressionera levels and that government actions might not help as much as expected. corporations will release this month, starting Tuesday with aluminum giant Alcoa. The unraveling of IBM Corp.s $7 billion deal for Sun Microsystems gave investors more reason for caution.

After a fourweek bull run thats driven some markets higher by 20 percent or more, investors are becoming more skittish as they brace for another round of selling.

All the markets have risen sharply in last the few weeks and the markets are overbought, said Peter Lai, investment manager at DBS Vickers in Hong Kong. Many people are now waiting for news or economic figures as an excuse to take profits, and some of smart funds are already selling.

Japans Nikkei 225 stock average closed down 25.08 points, or 0.3 percent, to 8,832.85 even as the Bank of Japan unveiled new steps to spur lending and corporate financing high heels amid a painful recession. The central bank also announced it was keeping its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a super low 0.1 percent, as was widely expected.